The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter October 2019 Naturalists ONE STEP AT A TIME Contents • In the Native Plant Garden .......1 A NORMAL summer in the Pacific Northwest. It is hard to believe, after two summers of heat and fires, we are enjoying a (erstwhile normal) year of cooler • Aug/Sep Hikes .............................2 temperatures, occasional to frequent rains, and a more prolonged flowering • Upcoming Hikes ...........................11 season. This year the frantic hiking pressure is off a bit and we can entertain some flexibility in our outdoor activities. • Naturalists Lecture Series .......12 While we enjoy it, let us be mindful that we are neither out of the woods • Native Plant Society ..................13 with the weather patterns we have lately suffered, and that we, more than ever, need to help turn the tide away from rapacious development, overuse • Odds and Ends ........................... 14 of our natural resources and pervasive ignorance and blatant disregard for • Contact Info .................................21 our natural world. Reach out to outdoor tourists with the calm zeal of our experience. The more exposure people have to our natural areas, and the better informed they are about it, the more receptive they will be to the call for personal privation (which hopefully will come soon) and that we reach ‘the great turning’ (to quote Joanna Macey). On Sunday Sep 29 Noon to 4PM meet at the garden kiosk by the In the Native Plant Garden lower parking lot southeast of the Mountaineers building. It is OK to The naturalist’s native plant garden is be late or leave early. I would like to know if you expect to make it but continuing to do its thing – you don't need to commit. Provide habitat for birds, continue to grow examples of our native trees and We will be weeding and moving shrubs, provide shade in an exposed, parking-lot-like part of Magnuson park, some of the decomposed wood and provide learning opportunities and opportunities for stewardship to our chips from the path. fellow mountaineers, plus providing examples for what many of our native To make room for incoming plants, plants look like. It is also now jointly supported by us and the Washington Native we will be removing some excess: plant society, giving us access to expertise in native plant germination, care and maintenance, as well as a new source of energy for the garden. Carex obnupta • Slough Sedge • Fragaria chiloensis • Fringecup There will be occasional work parties through the fall. Working alongside native • Beach Strawberry • Symphor- plant society members is an opportunity for us to learn more about native plant icarpos albus • Snowberry The habitats and care. Those of you that are interested in participating can e-mail small ones (few stems up to 3') • George Macomber ([email protected]). He will put you on the mailing list for Tellima grandiflora • Rubus nutkanus (Rubus parviflorus) • Thimbleberry work parties. You are welcome to salvage some, Check out the garden. It is just by the climbing rocks on the north end of the come prepared with bags or buckets. Seattle clubhouse. Good place for a picnic or a walk or biking destination or a Usual details: Please bring hand quick fix of nature before a meeting at the mountaineers. Try it, you’ll like it. tools for weeding, hand pruners and gloves if you have them. We will have GARDEN WORK PARTY SEPTEMBER 29 - THERE WILL BE MORE a few extra. Also bring water and LATER! PLEASE HELP OUT AND LEARN A BUNCH AS WELL a snack if you think you will want one. We have long handled tools, wheelbarrows, tarps, buckets and some kneeling pads. 1 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Naturalist Hikes GLAD WE’RE IN HEAVEN – INTRO CLASS WITH STEWART IN BERKELEY PARK – JULY 27 Boletus edulis –The King bolete AUGUST 3 – SCOTT PAUL TRAIL AND RAILROAD GRADE Stymied by the river crossing we chose to head up to railroad grade. It was a good second choice, but not for the faint at heart. Is that moraine stable? Penstemon and partridge foot Caroline on Railroad Grade, where the women are strong 2 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) AUGUST 6 – GREEN MT Pipsissewa Golden fleabane daisy Glorious paintbrush and goldenrod Mushrooms even – Sheryl with boletus mirabilis. (yum) 3 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) MOUNT BAKER AREA HIKE WEEKEND AUGUST 9 – SKYLINE DIVIDE Sedum art Northern goldenrod Land of 1000 smokes 4 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) AUGUST 10 – CHAIN LAKES LOOP Seepspring arnica Fringed grass of parnassus Butterwort feeding on insects Subalpine daisy and Lewis monkey 5 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) AUGUST 11 – YELLOW ASTER BUTTE Field of monkey flowers – but check out that butt! Happy campers with goldenrod and thimbleberry Male fern (check it out - this is a real species) Cascade penstemon Mountain sorrel 6 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) AUGUST 22 – TOLMIE LOOKOUT AND EUNICE LAKE Shrubby cinquefoil Ethereal gentian Was it that misty? Late flowering meadows near ipsut pass The only view of Mt. Rainier on this ‘view’ hike. Good though! 7 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) SEPTEMBER 14 – LAKE ANN Lake Ann & the Geology of the North Cascades “See that ledge that runs to the right from Lower Curtis Glacier,” Stewart pointed to the far slope behind him. “That is the intersection of two terranes. Shuksan greenschist is above the line, and Darrington phyllite is below it. A thrust fault runs between them.” Stewart – his geology training evident -- stood in front of us, pointing at diagrams in his notebook and then the cliff. We had stopped for lunch near Lake Ann. I stood off to the side, letting him talk. He teaches several courses for the Mountaineers and I’d hoped he’d come on my trip. He behind us. Steep slopes with talus and tree thickets could master this geology that I’d found so confusing. climbed a thousand feet. “With continental drift, the floor We’d seen so much thanks to him. of the Pacific Ocean is pushed under the land,” Stewart ran his finger over a drawing showing how the Pacific tectonic plate is subducted and melted. “The volcanoes, like Mt. Baker, then form where the molten rock reaches the surface. But, sometimes, there is a piece of the ocean crust that has a different consistency. It doesn’t subduct,” he said pointing at the next figure in the briefing book that he’d made to help us understand these concepts. “These chunks are pressed up against the continent, sometimes lapping up and over some of the pieces already here. These new parts are called terranes, and we hope to see evidence of four of them that have happened over the last 100 to 200 million years.” His broad brim hat and thick beard made him look like an explorer and professor. Four hours earlier, we had left Baker Lodge. Thick clouds obscured the view, and we could see neither Mount Baker nor Shuksan. The columnar basalt by the lodge’s parking lot made us pause. This flow also formed Table Mountain and happened about 300,000 years ago, putting a cap of rocks over the top of the area. The reddish leaves on the blueberries and mountain ash appeared warm in the soft filtered light. Besides all the living things we would identify, our goal was to explore the complex geology of the North Cascades. Clouds covered the tops of both ridges and totally obscured Mount Shuksan. Stewart explained that this massive mountain, pointing behind him, had once been basalt on the ocean floor. It had migrated, maybe thousands of miles, and had been taken deep into the earth where pressure and heat metamorphosed the basalt into greenschist and then it came back up, resting here. Greenschist is hard and resists erosion. Stewart’s hat cast a shadow on his face; his enthusiasm was infectious. The Lake Ann Trail dropped down into a broad valley. He pointed to different geologic features around us, There, Stewart pulled out a map and a series of drawings explaining what we were seeing. When he paused, there while the rest of us formed a semicircle around him. The was silence as everyone tried to absorb the magnitude of Shuksan Arm rose behind him and Ptarmigan Ridge how dynamic this landscape was. These timescales are 8 The Mountaineers: Seattle Branch Naturalists Newsletter August/September Hikes (Continued) hard to fathom. Then the discussion continued for twenty minutes before we began to hike again. The trail toward the saddle into Lake Ann climbed steeply through a talus slope of granite. Stopping, we huddled, while pikas scolded us. Here was a relatively recent geologic event. Just two million years ago, a molten plume squeezed up between older rocks, but didn’t break the surface. It cooled slowly, forming granite, and now the overlying material had eroded away, exposing the granite. Stewart in one of those terranes. Eons ago, the skeletons of explained the crystal formation that makes it and how other millions of microscopic marine plankton had settled to igneous rocks have different mineral compositions. the ocean floor, became sandstone-like and then went through a deep dive into the earth’s crust to remerge as Across Swift Creek, white soft-textured cliffs hung halfway these fascinating rocks. Repeatedly, I ran my fingers along up the slope. These were carved from the ash beds of the the lines, and now many of us sat on chunks of chert Kulshan Caldera.